Why running electric trains is a superior option than hydrogen trains in India

Railway Expert And Commentator

Lalit Chandra Trivedi

1. Hydrogen trains make sense when hydrogen is green, that is produced by renewables.

2. If renewable-based electricity is consumed directly by grid, the process efficiency is 100%.

3. Process efficiency of renewable based electricity consumed via Electricity/Hydrogen/Electricity route is 30-40% besides associated cost of storage and transportation.

4. Indian electricity grid presently consumes 70% of electricity produced by burning coal.

5. Presently there is no point in using renewable-based electricity for producing green hydrogen, as currently its production is less than the requirement of the Indian electricity grid.

6. If without meeting 100% requirements of Indian electricity grid, the renewable-based electricity is diverted for producing green hydrogen, we will lose 70% electricity in the transformation Electricity/Hydrogen/Electricity, simultaneously will be burning more coal to produce electricity to meet grid requirements.

7. The developed world is using surplus electricity of renewables for green hydrogen production as some of the European countries are facing points when renewables produce electricity more than their grid’s capacity to absorb.

8. Even after we reach the point of surplus renewables capacity, that is when production of renewable-based electricity is more than the requirement of the grid, first claim on green hydrogen should be at places like, fertiliser factories, refineries, food hydrogenation plant, steel production and so on where green hydrogen can be used at the point of production without bearing the cost of storage and transportation.

9. With 100% electrification of railway tracks, Indian Railways (IR) is able to ensure seamless movement of efficient electric locomotives across the length and breadth of IR network.

For hydrogen trains, it will take ages to develop hydrogen replenishing points over entire IR network (minimum requirements -250 ).

On the other hand creating an island for hydrogen operations will again push IR into silos of traction.

The efficiency of railways is at maximum when a locomotive can run over long distances in a seamless manner across entire network. Detaching and attaching locomotives based on availability of traction erodes efficiency of rail transportation as IR experienced in era of mixed traction of diesel and electric motive power.

10. The eco-system of H2 road tankers to replenish these hydrogen re-fuelling points spread across the country will be a costly and gigantic task.

11. H2 is very light, hence the volumetric capacity required for storage and transportation of the same calorific value is multi-fold. This exponentially increases the cost of storage and transportation.

12. H2 makes steel brittle as it has propensity to enter molecular structure of storage tank material. This calls for special material for storage, increasing cost.